US Ports Deal Reveals Bush Weakness in National Security: UAE to Control 40% of Army Cargo to Iraq

The Bush Administration has spent more than any other presidency in US history on national security, and yet the United States remains as physically vulnerable today as before September 11, 2001.

A few months ago, the 9/11 Commission's Final Report gave federal government a failing report card for never implementing basic safeguards based on lessons learned on from horrific day in our national memory. The 9/11 commission told us that we are as vulnerable and unprotected today as before 9/11.

Instead of establishing and supporting physical safeguards and first responders FOR Americans in our communities and at US ports and ships, railways and trains, highways, bridges.....the Bush Administration used billions in national security funds to secretly spy ON Americans.

Let me repeat that....George Bush used tens of billions in federal money to spy ON you: to read your emails and snail mail , to listen in on your personal phone calls, to browse your medical records, to peek into your library card usage. And to build massive federal data banks about you, your children and your neighbors.

Bush did not use federal funds FOR your protection in your home, community or anywhere in public. r. Bush cut those funds for the past two years. You and your loved ones are as vulnuerable to physical harm by terrorists today as you were before September 11, 2001.

In fact, terrorism experts claim you are more vulnerable now than before 9/11, due to the rise in terrorism stemming from Bush Administration incompetence and constant miscalculations.
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To make matters worse, a unnoticed, horrifying aspect of the deal to cede control of major US ports to the United Arab Emirates is uncovered by the blog Think Progress (owned by respected think-tank Center for American Progress):

"A major part of the story, however, has been mostly overlooked. The company, Dubai Ports World, would also control the movement of military equipment on behalf of the U.S. Army through two other ports. From today’s edition of the British paper Lloyd’s List:

[P&O] has just renewed a contract with the United States Surface Deployment and Distribution Command to provide stevedoring [loading and unloading] of military equipment at the Texan ports of Beaumont and Corpus Christi through 2010. According to the journal Army Logistician “Almost 40 percent of the Army cargo deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom flows through these two ports.”

Thus, the sale would give a country that has been 'a key transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Lybia' direct control over substantial quantities U.S. military equipment. "

What is the Bush Administration thinking? Are they thinking? They consider this adequate national security?

This US ports deal shows complete disinterest in protecting Americans from terrorist harm. It illustrates again that the Bush Administration, which claims to be strong on national security, is an imcompetent, boastful paper tiger on security matters FOR American citizens. George Bush is weak on national security!

As New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd commented today, "Maybe it's corporate racial profiling, but I don't want foreign companies, particularly ones with links to 9/11, running American ports.

What kind of empire are we if we have to outsource our coastline to a group of sheiks who don't recognize Israel, in a country where money was laundered for the 9/11 attacks? It's mind-boggling that President Bush ever agreed to let an alliance of seven emirs be in charge of six of our ports."
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Related Articles
-- The Failing US Report Card on 9/11 Commission Recommendations
-- Failure to Implement 9/11 Commission Report Causes Bush To Imperil Los Angeles
-- Bush Attorney General Refused to OK Wiretaps
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